Living upstairs while the rest of the house caught up

Moving in did not end the build. It put us in the middle of it.

Living upstairs

The first floor was an enclosed, comfortable apartment, very nearly finished, with views of the coast that we have not tired of. Everything below it and around it was still a building site.

Blockwork going up between the concrete uprights of the ground floor, with scaffolding, timber and building materials across the slab, and the rendered first floor above.

We made one decision on moving in that surprises people. Where you would reasonably expect patio doors, we left the openings unglazed and ordered steel roller shutters for each one instead. The reasoning came from the house we had rented: in all the time we lived there, we closed the patio doors only when it rained, which here is perhaps once a year. We were betting that the shutters would arrive before the rain did.

The view from the first-floor living space through an open, unglazed opening, with pot plants along the railing and the sea beyond.

They arrived in January 2025, eight months after we moved in. The rain held off. We were lucky.

A few of the other windows, the bathroom among them, were still to be fitted when we moved in. They went in soon afterwards.

A December sunset over the sea, seen from inside the first floor.

A team that turned up

In May 2024 work started on three fronts at once: the pool, the blockwork downstairs, and rough landscaping of what would become the garden.

We had a good team at this stage: three builders who turned up every day and got on with the job. That was not something we had been able to take for granted, and it did more for the pace of the year than anything else. They stayed until August 2025.

Over those fifteen months the ground floor was filled in with blockwork and divided into rooms, the rough groundworks were done around the house, the whole building was rendered in cement, and the outhouse was built.

The main room on the ground floor, walled in and bare, with a rough concrete floor and the sea visible through the far opening.

Our building manager did the first-fix wiring and plumbing downstairs, and the ceilings went in. By the end, the ground floor was rough-finished: rooms with walls, ceilings and services, waiting for their finishes.

The kitchen island went up in blockwork in January 2025 and was clad in local sandstone the following month. A stone top will go on it one day.

The kitchen island under construction as a low wall of concrete blocks in the middle of the bare ground floor.

The same kitchen island a month later, clad in pale local sandstone.

In February 2025 the container we had bought from our neighbours was lifted out of the way by crane, so that the last stretch of the perimeter wall could be finished.

Bricks from a demolition

During this period we were able to take a large quantity of recycled paving bricks from a demolition. There were enough to pave all of the outside ground not set aside for planting or lawn. It saved buying new, and it is a small contribution towards a lower carbon footprint.

Two strips of recycled paving bricks laid across bare earth as a driveway, running towards the container at the end of the plot.

The roof

The roof was finished too, parapet and render included. It already makes an excellent viewing platform, but its real job is still to come. It will carry water tanks, so that we have a reserve every time the local supply fails, and all of the solar panels, and a solar water heater with two circuits, one for the house and one for the pool. The panels and the heater are not fitted yet.

Looking down from the roof on the terrace and the steel reinforcement for the pool.

The pool

The pool took shape over the same period. It has a story of its own, told in a separate entry.

Steel reinforcement for the pool walls and floor, with the house behind.

From building site to house

Slowly, over the year and a bit, the plot stopped being a rough building site and became a home waiting to be finished. Where it stands now is the subject of the next entry.